Image Credit: Photofunia.com Let’s face it. Unlike its neighbor, New Jersey, a/k/a the California of the East, not many would label the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania an employee-friendly state. There’s no state-level FMLA, the whistleblower law is basically limited to public sector employers, and the Commonwealth’s anti-discrimination laws essentially mimic federal…
Articles Posted in Wage and Hour
As if restaurants haven’t endured enough already, the DOL just announced an 80/20 rule on steroids.
Gary J. Wood, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Do you have tipped employees? If so, you’re gonna want to keep reading. If not, I’ll see you tomorrow. (Either way, before you go, make sure to register here for the return of The Employer Handbook Zoom Office Hour on Friday, June…
Let’s answer some of your COVID-19 return to work questions. The Zoom Office Hour returns this Friday, 6/25 at Noon ET
Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay Last Wednesday, as part of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s EXCEL Conference, three of us (me and two of the EEOC’s education and outreach coordinators) gazed into our crystal ball to predict some of the issues that employers will face as more employees return…
Secretary of Labor to Congress: The salary level cutoff for overtime is too low. We’re changing it.
limbo by Gan Khoon Lay from the Noun Project I still get a kick out of people using the term “salary exempt,” as in, we pay that employee a salary, so s/he isn’t eligible for overtime. Under the Fair Labor Standard Act, a salary is just one of several components…
DON’T DO THIS: Misclassify your employees as independent contractors
United States Department of Commerce and Labor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons While not quite as outrageous as slavery, ignorance, or misogyny, today’s edition of “Don’t Do This” will apply most practically to readers of this blog. Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor officially withdrew its “Independent Contractor Rule.” The DOL had…
DON’T DO THIS: Enslave an employee
Image by analogicus from Pixabay Common sense dictates that, as human beings, we refrain from certain activities. For example, neither cuddling with a porcupine nor housebreaking a skunk are good ideas. You don’t need a lawyer to tell you that. As an attorney, when my clients come to me for…
Members of Congress want “bold action” from the new Labor Secretary. (Like overtime for anyone making under $1,591/week!!!))
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Several members of Congress have asked new Secretary of Labor Martin J. Walsh to require American businesses to pay overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act to anyone making less than $1,591 per week (equivalent to $82,732 per year for a full-year worker) who…
Here’s a tip. Expect significant changes to the DOL’s previously-proposed employee tipping rules.
Nan Palmero from San Antonio, TX, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons I know a guy. (Ok, I got a press release.) In December, I blogged here about how the U.S. Department of Labor planned to update the rules for tipped employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. (By…
In a move that no one saw coming, the Biden DOL plans to 86 the joint employer and proposed independent contractor rules
Heart Monitor by habione 404 from the Noun Project Oh, how embarrassing! Let me fix that blog post title. In a move that no one anyone with half a brain or a faint pulse saw coming, the Biden DOL will eliminate the joint employer and proposed independent contractor rules. There,…
It’s official! Second chances and clean slates for wage-and-hour violators are over at the DOL.
Image Credit: Photofuinia.com In 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor began allowing employers to self-report wage and hour violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and pay 100% of the wages owed to workers. In exchange, DOL would not assess liquidated damages, which would otherwise equal 100% of the…